My pieces of Gold this Saint Patrick's Day!

  Today is day of wearing green, parades, great Irish food, dancing, fun and often some Leprechaun mischief. This day however started out honoring a man that was a missionary to, and a bishop of, Ireland. He was canonized a saint and became the  primary patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick.  This Scottish man’s love for God that was so deep he forgave the Irish Raiders that imprisoned Him, and then took Jesus to their country, Ireland. We do not know when he was born exactly, but it is well recorded that he died on March 17, 461 AD.

Pinterest treat I found, so cute.

   

   I had been on Pinterest and stumbled onto this cute little treat. I liked the idea and decided to make it for my grandchildren. I did not have the plastic pretzel sleeves and not a lot of time to go where they might have them, so to my grandchildren’s advantage I used treat bags. More sweet treats there! I had fun making these and thought I would share them. For the treats I made the gold is Rolo and milk chocolate Gold Coins, the clouds are miniature white marshmallows, and the rainbows are Fruit Slices.

You can always click a photo to enlarge it.

Gift tags! And a great excuse to get a little stamping in!

The stuff that brings the word Treats into these little gifts.

The Gold!

Depositing the Gold in the bags.

Punching out circles for a little platform between the gold and clouds.

Clouds in.

So far nibbling has not been a problem, but here come those fruit slices!!!

Rainbows in.

All tied up.

Labels attached with ribbon.

A little note from, Nana.

Off to Post!

   On the back of each label I wrote, “name”,  At the end of the rainbow, behind the clouds ~ you are a piece of my Pot of Gold! Nana.  I love putting things together like that for them! You can see the note I sent them by going here. I hope your Saint Patrick’s Day is going well and full of fun!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!

Birthdays, Memories and Jesus!

   I have several grandchildren and the other day one of my grandsons called to say he hoped we were getting together for Christmas because it just would not be the same without me. How do you say HOTWIRE? Last summer I spent time with my daughter and her family. I was able to spend quality time with each of the children. At the end of my stay there my son~in~law thought it might be nice to go to the beach. Such good memories! I spent a day at the beach with this grandson. He, his sisters and I created a magical sand castle.

Our castle in the making. 

His birthday was a few weeks later. He, his mom, dad and sisters went on a Disney cruise with plenty of Caribbean sandy beach ports of call. I felt inspired to design and create this birthday card for him.

I loved creating a card that featured him framed as a piece of God's special artwork.

His birthday was the day on the cruise they were at Grand Caymen.

I love dolphins. I still have my Scholastic book on them from the Scholastic Book Club I bought in 1st or 2nd grade.

This is on my Bucket List.

He said the turtles at Grand Caymen Turtle Farm were his favorite thing. Some of them were as big as 500 pounds.

And there I was thinking the Queen of England was the only one with two grand birthday cakes with celebrations to follow.  See below at dinner.

As for the saints who are on the earth,

“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

Psalm 16:3

I made this for him when he was much younger. Given the way he celebrated his birthday perhaps an updated rendition of this card would have been more appropriate.

One of my favorite books.

   Just like birthdays of friends and family, we celebrate a very special birthday at Christmas. Christmas is when we celebrate the birthday of, Jesus. That is why it is such a wonderful time of the year. Yes, I am humming it. I am excited. Just like our earthy family and friends birthdays we are excited, we plan for this big birthday, we celebrate, have great food, a time of fellowship, have parties, give gifts, send cards, sing, and make precious and priceless memories.

   Jesus is the best gift ever and always will be. He is so precious to me and His love and being Lord of my life can never have a price tag on it, He paid it all for me. He paid it for everyone that will receive the precious gift of His love. I think of this everyday of the year, but this time of the year we celebrate it! How will you celebrate God's precious gift this year? What memories are you making with your family and friends? I would love to hear all about them. I enjoy the email I receive from readers.

Yes! I am blessed!

A few of my dearest blessings!!!

     Some time ago, I mention I wanted to write a post about what being blessed meant someday. I will do that at some point but for now I am under some time constraints because I am still working full time and taking three college classes. This of course is why my blogging fell off these last three months. I have so much I want to blog about, just not enough time. I must say though; being in school this last year I have learned so much about time management and how to really prioritize.  I miss blogging so I thought maybe I could combine school and blogging. I write quite a bit for my classes, some for homework and some for me personally. This morning as I was work on some homework I thought I might pull out an old discussion question, tweak it for the blog and post it. This is from one of the classes I am taking now called Receiving from God. The discussion question was:

Do you believe you’re blessed? What is your belief based upon – the things you have or the Word of God? Please justify/explain your answer.

     I grew up in a denomination that certainly knew the overall account of the Bible and had knowledge of certain key and foundational truths in the Bible. Though it breaks my heart to see the bondage some of those in that denomination live in because they will not free themselves from legalistic doctrine and enjoy their walk with the Holy Spirit in them, I am quite thankful that at least I did grow up in a denomination that taught salvation, Christ crucified and resurrected and did focus on memorizing scripture. I was saved in that church and just as God promised, the Word put in me back then is still in my remembrance and  since it does not come back void it is producing fruit in my life. Having said that I will say God is good and His Word reiterates that over and over and over. Throughout scripture we see a loving God reaching out to a rebellious people all the while just trying to bless them. Nothing has changed, man still rebels against God, but God does not change, He is still trying to get the blessings He promised us actualized in our lives. 

     I think for us to know we are blessed, we must know God because to know Him is to know His mercy, grace and goodness. When I say “know” I mean the kind of knowing that really perceives, understands and realizes in a revelation sort of way, the kind of knowing you get by personally encountering God’s goodness. If we do not know God’s mercy, grace and goodness, we can not truly trust Him. If you don’t trust someone you are not likely to receive from them, especially those unseen things you must receive by faith. If you do not trust your friend, child or spouse to tell you the truth, when they tell you they have done or not done something you will doubt them and not receive what they are saying ~ even if it is the truth. I love football. I am so ready to see those Packers on the field again. Every time I see Greg Jennings or Donald Driver put everything they have into putting themselves into a position to receive that ball on a pass so they can take it to the goal for a touch down, I think how I want to be that kind of aggressive receiver of all God’s blessing, all He has for me.

     Yes!! I am blessed because I am a descendent spiritually of Abraham and God says all of the blessings for Abraham were for me as His child. I am blessed because I have given my life to Jesus and by the Holy Spirit He lives in me. That is such an amazing blessing, to have the Holy Spirit of God living in me!  And, I have welcomed the Holy Spirit to freely and at His pleasure operate in me and through me. What do I base I my belief on? Well, I have seen it first hand over and over in my life, God’s blessing that is. I am speaking of blessings that could not be manufactured at the hands of man. Historically we have seen God’s faithfulness to His covenant in scripture, Genesis through Revelation. But most of all, because God said so in the Word He left me, the Word He sealed with His own Son’s blood. And that is plenty good enough for me.

Psalm 119:50  “...For Your Word has given me life."

Blessing for your Birthdays

I actually made this card last year but thought today would be a great day to post it. Today is my granddaughter's birthday, and it would have been my mom's 78th birthday. Happy birthday, Sweetie! I miss you, Mom. That particular granddaughter and her great grandmother were very close and I know she still thinks about her. Tomorrow is my son~in~love's birthday, 30 years young he will be! And last but not least, Thursday is my dear friend Kim's birthday. Happy Birthday, Kim!!  I love all of you!

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy...,   and I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:3-4a, 6

Cookies, cards, family and friendship.

Thank you, Kim. You are a good friend and a generous one!

Those items in the picture above are gifts my dear friend Kim gave me for my birthday in September 2009. I feel awful because I am just now posting them. They are all from her heart. The Nestabilities are the only ones I own and I love them. The pad comes with them and the stamps are so beautiful, she knew I would love those. I have never seen All Creatures Great and; Small, until she sent the DVD's to me. What wonderful tales of veterinary medicine and animals in York! The card. Kim has made some very amazing cards over the years. This is my favorite. I is the most beautiful card. My favorite colors, vellum and baking too! I have it displayed in my spare bedroom with other cards she has sent me. Thank you, Kim! 


I believe the last time I made a card was July, 2009. That is SO sad! I am redefining my life right now; I am taking it back and making it what I want it to be. Card making may not be the defining point of my life, nor sadly enough it may not be a huge part of my life, but it is most definitely one of the pleasures of life as far as I am concerned. It is therapy at its finest as it provides stress relief, an outlet to create and time of quite and meditation ~ even if I have a DVD popped in. I made a this card that same weekend we tried this church. That is huge. Sad, yeah I know. It was the first card I have made I think since Kim sent me the Nestabilities, I used one of them. They are wonderful! How easy to make that circle now. Did I say, Thank you, Kim??? My daughter had a VERY trying week that week, and that was the easy part. My son~in~law and grandson experienced big time yuck that week. Card and cookie time! It is so hard as a Nana to be so far away when nastiness strikes. So, what does a Nana do? Pray. Pray and pray. Then when you have done that she stands firm on the promises she just prayed over those that need it and then she makes a card, bakes some cookies, and heads to the post office.

Loads of Love!!!!!

And how better to say that than with pink M & M's?

     I can not end this post without saying how happy I am for the Green Bay Packers win this year at SuperBowl XVL! Any of you that followed my blog back when I was faithful to write in it know they are my team.  My husband and one son~in~law are Chicago Bears fans. Another son~in~law is a Washington Redskins fan, and one of my grandson’s is a Minnesota Vikings fan. Christmas this year brought plenty of evidence of that. NFL.com made out quite well with my family this year as you will see in the picture below, and that was not all of it. The amazing thing was that as devoted as we are to our respective teams; the Christmas Spirit was also abundantly evident in how we all gave each other that which meant something to the recipient even though it was a little against our own preferred favorite team. Green Bay did win the SuperBowl and I was proud of them and delighted, but not anywhere as much as I was this past Christmas of my family, when giving from the heart is always more of a win! The blessed life.

Christmas Spirit!

Of Mice and Chocolate.

One day, a while back at my office, we had an interesting event. The woman across the hall from me is going to be married in a few weeks. She is young and beautiful and always has a sachet about her unhurried walk, and an overall reserved gentleness about herself. She is quiet, friendly and always composed. Lovely young lady. And then the interesting event of that particular day happened. We had hit our late morning lull of quiet, bar the tapping of computer keys. Amazing that. Just prior to the mass lunch time exodus, we have the most delightful forty~five minutes of peace and quiet. It seems for about forty-five minutes before the lunch time exodus, everyone becomes focused and quite productive. I personally love it because the coffee clutching and cackling subsides for a precious three quarters of an hour. Peaceful. Peaceful and thought inspiring.

And then the interesting event of that day happened. Quiet... tap,tap,tapp tapp. Quiet ... tap rapid tap, tap, tap, tap. SCREAM!!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GO...okay she did not say gosh but anyway... OH MY GOSH!!!!!!! SOMETHING JUST RAN OVER MY FOOT!!!!!!!! EEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!! And may I just say the all caps here in no way truly capture the shrill and decibel level those words hit. Our demure young lady was beside herself! I personally would have been beside myself AND up on the desk.

All productivity comes to an anxious halt and people came bolting out of their office doors to see what could possibly be the matter. This reserved and quiet woman looked as if she might go into cardiac arrest with her red face and gasping mouth. She was shaky and it goes without saying beyond upset. A mouse had run across her foot! I had to agree with her.... what horror!

So the event gets even curiouser. As the rest of us began to assess where might be the best spot to place a mouse trap, we discovered the most interesting thing. Behind a somewhat large planter in the corner there were gold bits of foil crumbled in a semi neat pile of about an inch high and perhaps four inches in diameter. We immediately recognized these to be the gold foil wrapping of holiday Hershey kisses. We looked at the bowl on the far corner (diagonally on the other far side of her office) of her desk only to find three Hershey Kisses partially eaten, leaving suspiciously small teeth marks. Other than that the bowl was empty. This woman had been accusing her friend (and supervisor) that is down the hall and on a diet, of eating the missing Kisses. This woman had denied it all along. It was mice. Were they dropping them from the desk and scurrying over with them in tow to enjoy behind the planter? I had visions of Ratatouille going through my head. You remember? When they were foraging for food at Gusteau's restaurant. At any rate I was certain we were dealing with more than one mouse. I rather figured it was more like a little army of them.

Like this maybe.

I had been meaning to put these pictures on my blog at Christmas but never got around to it. Upon returning to my office, though wary of where I stepped, I had to chuckle to myself as I remembered these cute little treats I made at Christmas for my grand daughter's school Christmas party. Perhaps you noticed these precious little mice are made out of....... Hershey Kisses! :-) I saw these on Kim's blog a couple of years ago, just never had a reason to make them. They were a big hit at the school party. It is so easy to seem like such a great Nana. I love that. Anyway, the woman that had been accused of eating the Hershey's Kisses thought I might want to make these adorable little mice for our co~workers wedding reception, only alter the colors used. I thought it might be fun. The fussy bride to be however said I "should never make them again." Geez........

Here is how you can (and I) can make them using Hershey Kisses, sliced almonds Maraschino cherries, Oreo cookies, some icing gel and chocolate chips.

When I made them I ended up having only one mouse pad per cookie. In my next post I will show you where the extra chocolate Oreo cookie from each Oreo went.

Day 434.., but who's counting?

I am sure most of you will remember this photo. I posted it last February 6. On 2.6 my son-in-law turned 26. I wanted to wish him a happy birthday. At the time he was in, Iraq. He had deployed in November for a 15 month deployment. This was his second time deployed there.




Below is a series of photos and a little that I had had written to go with the photos in January of last year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are photos taken the day Marty's, unit was deploying.







I know children are to such an amazing degree resilient. I also know that Tara, is a wonderful mother, and these children are being handled, nurtured and reassured, very well. I am sure however that you would understand why I am sobbing, and why my heart is so desperately broken. Marty is a good father and these children need him. They will survive this as well as any will because of how Marty, and Tara. have handled all of this. But, I just want that family in tact and back to normal Those children need him, so does, Tara. Posted January 28, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now I would like to jump forward a few months to June of last year. Moving to Oklahoma in May of last year had a few perks. One of my favorites was that I was living close to my daughter Melissa and her family, and that Tara was just a few hours away in, Texas. After being here for three weeks, Tara and her children came to visit for three weeks. What a treat that was. I want to share a few photos from that time. I have so many wonderful pictures, but I will limit myself here.

There was so much packed into that three weeks, much of which won't even show up here. There were:
Silly times:







Sweet times:













Study times:
And this friends is one of the deep secrets to getting those A's. And this momma does!


Times of I thought this was a vacation:






I think I will just stay right here and keep myself out of trouble, thank you very much.


Vacation Bible School week: It was yellow day this day.



The girl in brown pedal pushers and the one in the middle with red hair are Melissa's girls.







Water park day:







Family picnic on the 4th of July:
I honestly think Melissa's husband, Uncle Larry, had at least as much fun as the kids.










Wow!! does she look like her daddy! I'm guessing Marty will like this picture. :-)






aaawww


Life is good.

A beautiful surprise for Tara from Marty...all the way from, Iraq!


We had a lot of fun in those three weeks. Life is good, and Tara continued to do just as I knew she would. She handled and nurtured and reassured the kids so well that you could almost be fooled into thinking all was well on the planet. And in many ways it was. But there was a hole in everything we did, and everywhere we went. Though absent, it was the heaviest thing in the air and weighed so heavily on my heart. Marty is no wallflower, and is very involved where ever he is. He's the guy that keeps it all going, and going well. And so, though we had plenty of good times, there were some times that broke my heart to the point of hardly being able to stand it. I will always cherish these three weeks and hope we have many more times like this, but there were some things you only get to see when someone in your family is deployed to war, and that I really never care to see again. I enjoy the internet, but never was I so thankful for it as I was at the times you will see in a few of the photos of below.


Once a week was letter writing and sending daddy goodies... beef jerky, snacks, personal items, drawings the kids had done. This particular time root beer floats were involved.

Oh my goodness was I ever impressed with how well this full grown woman I used to rock and marvel at how she cooed, crawled and just smiled back at me, handled all of this!



Anytime there daddy could get online, he would and he would call Tara and she would set up the video chat and they could all visit. Tara and the kids could see and here him, and often what struck me to tears, he could see all of them. It was bad enough that Tara and the kids all missed Marty so much, but when I would think of how at least they had each other and family and that Marty was over there, head of his home and yet unable to be with any of them, and with no family around.......... like now typing, at those times I could hardly breathe. And tears were abundant.




They loved singing a new song they learned in Vacation Bible School to, Marty. The blender is there to support the camera.

Soon, blenders and video chats will not be necessary.

Marty is due home in Texas, to stay, tomorrow morning. I will be posting tomorrow!!

I really want to thank all of you that have kept Marty safe in prayer. Kim, barring any delay, the yellow ribbons come off tomorrow girl!!